Walking in the rain

 It was a rainy, cool day today.  The first of four such days if you believe the local weatherman.

Seeing as it was David's first day off in, oh, over a week surely, we had a family walk planned.  Unfortunately, I woke up sick, Clara woke up tired, and David woke up regreting that he'd tried to break in brand new shoes 'all at once'.

One thing about life with a toddler, however, is that no matter how sick, tired, or otherwise miserable you may be...you're up to bat.

 I tried to think of where I could bring Samuel that would A) be quiet enough that my ears wouldn't hurt and B) wear him out.  We opted for the nature trail that runs through our town.

Despite the weather, out we went.  And we had a nice time.  Samuel was tired out by the end of it, and we must have looked just awful coming out of the trail because a complete stranger stopped to offer us a lift home in the pouring rain.

 The trees were starting to turn, the river was swollen, and we had the sort of lengthly discussions a sick adult has with a 2 year old.  Mostly about why there weren't any raspberries anymore and 'what's that noise?'.

 The wildlife didn't disappoint.  There were several red squirrels, a bright yellow slug, a bluebird, and a lot of other birdsong we couldn't identify.  And we saw a duck.  Quite the successful animal-spotting walk.

We started at marker number four and made it to marker number eight. I think that each marker indicated a half a kilometre, which means we did a four kilometre walk - or five kilometres if you count the walk to and from the trail

It was good exercise, and despite being sick, I didn't mind it.  I'm grateful, however, to be home again.